


Long as You Live

by JulieArchery107



Series: Long as You Live [1]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games), Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Descent into Madness, Hearing Voices, Insanity, Possession, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 21:20:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29160318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JulieArchery107/pseuds/JulieArchery107
Summary: Jack never left. Rhys is a fool if he thought he did.
Relationships: Handsome Jack/Rhys (Borderlands)
Series: Long as You Live [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140581
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Long as You Live

"Long as You Live"

Chapter 1

“Creeping Whispers”

* * *

Because Ao3 doesn’t allow crossed out words, or multiple custom fonts, here’s a quick readers guide for y’all!

( _ This is Jack talking _ )

[ _ This is Rhys trying to ignore his thoughts _ ]

* * *

He hisses as the cut starts to bleed. 

_ 'Thin and lean _ ' he thinks, just a little bit numbly, as he reaches for a rug ' _ like a paper cut _ .'

It was dirty, covered in crispy oil and rust, but that was fine. 

He made do with less. 

Shaking his head Rhys tried closing his fist, checking if the cut was deep enough to require stitches [though  _ even if it does he won't get them. The pain helps him stay focused, stay awake, stay  _ **_himself_ ** ], and was relieved to find that it wasn't. 

It just bled a lot.

He tinkers with the robot some more, making sure to press the tools against the wound hard enough to make it hurt, and feels relieved when the pain shoots up his arm, practically setting his nerves on fire. 

Rhys knows he shouldn't like it, shouldn't enjoy getting  _ hurt _ , knows he should  _ stop _ . 

But he's far more worried about what will happen if pain  _ isn't _ there to ground him, keep him  _ whole _ . 

Because he's  _ splintering _ , like a broken mirror, with glassy shards falling off the surface and disappearing into nothingness. 

Rhys wasn't just  _ Rhys _ anymore, would  _ never _ be just Rhys again. 

Because there was something hiding in the darkness that lurked beneath the mirror. 

Just waiting for enough of Rhys to disappear so it can take his place. 

* * *

_ 'I'm in control. _ '

Rhys thinks as he takes in shaky breaths, his eyes staring into the inky darkness of his bedroom and flesh arm gripping the covers a bit too tightly. 

Sitting up he activated his ECHOeye’s night vision to take a precautionary look around the room. It was exactly the same as he left it… three hours ago before bed: large, filled to the brim with junk, and as luxurious as his income as CEO allowed it to be. 

It was fine, it  _ should _ be fine. 

But something still felt… off.  _ [He's gone gone gone away _ ]

He shakes his head as if to throw the feeling away, and wishes Sasha was here, wishes she hadn’t left, wishes he wasn’t so…  _ wrong _ . 

His robotic arm is laying in the far corner of the room, charging peacefully. Rhys doesn't trust it anywhere near him when he's unconscious. [ _ I watched him disappear _ .]

He doesn't [ _ want to _ ] remember what the nightmares were about.

Just that he wasn't able to breathe. 

  
  


( _ Your mind is playing tricks on you, my dear _ )

* * *

One night he wakes up to the feeling of his face being  _ burned _ .

He remembers screaming and trying to tear it off [make it stop,  _ make it stop _ ,  **_make it stop!_ ** ]. 

He remembers seeing the concerned looks on his friend's faces the next day. 

[ _ He remembers seeing the upside down "V" symbol scratched into his face _ .]

* * *

Rhys never found out what was behind Jack's mask as, unlike his broken family, it wasn't something the tyrant was prone to expositing about during the last minutes of his life.

But then he sees the way Athena looks at the fresh wound on his face, and knows  _ exactly _ what was under that mask. 

* * *

The next time he dreamed the world was on fire, people were screaming and there was a monster tearing Pandora apart. 

Someone was laughing. 

_ He _ was laughing. 

But it was not his voice.

* * *

"She doesn't hate you, Rhys." Janey says over the ECHO one day. 

"Does she mean  _ me _ ," he says, voice rough and brittle against his tongue. "Or  _ him _ ?"

He doesn't think Athena can see the difference anymore.

Janey doesn't reply, and Rhys gets his answer.

* * *

_ 'I'm in control. _ '

Rhys thought as he looked into the eyes of his mirror counterpart [ _ pointedly avoiding the fading wound scratched onto his face] _ . 

His hands were shaking against the steady stream of warm water, and his eyes were red.

He doesn't know why he came in here, why he left the board meeting in the middle of a presentation, [ _ why he doesn't remember getting up and walking] _ and it  _ scares _ him enough to nearly trigger a heart attack. 

He closes his eyes, takes a breath, and counts to ten, because he can't afford a breakdown. 

Not right now, not when everything has been going so  _ well _ . 

By the end of his exercise he thinks he's ready to go back. 

And then the feeling is back. The icky stickiness between his fingers that started to haunt him ever since he- ever  _ since _ .

Automatically he dumps his metallic hand under the running water. 

It's boiling hot now, nearly enough to leave burns (he really needs to do something about that boiler) and begins to rub his fingers with his organic ones. 

He doesn’t question why he can feel stickiness with his metal arm that doesn’t have any receptors ( _ Isn’t it obvious? _ ). He doesn’t question why it happens during board meetings. He doesn't question why he doesn't flinch back from the scalding heat. 

Doesn’t question why it bothers him so much. 

( _ You’ve always been so adorably squeamish, princess. _ )

He doesn’t question  _ anything _ . 

( _ So unlike you, Rhysie... _ ) 

He doesn’t want to  _ know _ .

( _ I think you already do. _ )

* * *

The wound on his face keeps getting deeper and deeper every night.

His hand gets out of the restraints that tie it to the bed, and claws at the 'V' symbol until the fingers are sticky with blood. 

Rhys couldn't rely on LB to always be there to hold him down [ _ what would happen if he was alone and couldn’t make it stop? _ ] so Tanis gives him muscle relaxers. 

( _ They won't work, Rhys _ ) Time will tell if they give the desired effect. 

* * *

_ 'I'm alone. _ '

Rhys tells himself that every time he's in the elevator. ( _ Did you really think it would be that easy? _ )

Surrounded by nothing but his own reflection staring back at him with the same wide blue eyes, tight lips and disheveled hair, he should feel safe. ( _ God you really are  _ **_stupid_ ** )

It's only  _ him _ . ( _ You keep telling yourself that, Princess _ )

But those eyes were just a bit too yellow, those lips were just a bit too frowny, and that hair was just a bit too perfect. ( _ I’m what you see when you face the mirror. _ )

They were  _ his _ reflections…

But it wasn't  _ him _ . ( _ Long as you  _ **_live_ ** _ , I will  _ **_still_ ** _ be here. _ )

_ 'I'm alone. _ ' 

It was a lie. 

A big horrendous lie but it's one he's willing to put his all into believing. ( _ I can't  _ **_wait_ ** _ to see your face… _ _ ) _

It's easier to accept than… than…

The thought that he  _ failed _ and  _ he's still here.  _ ( _ Once it  _ **_all_ ** _ finally clicks into place _ ) 

Now in the bathroom, Rhys takes a deep breath, closes his eyes and prepares himself for his return to the office. 

He's about to turn on his heels and walk out... when he sees  _ it _ . 

The thing that nearly shattered whatever pretences he may have kept up. 

There, written on the steamy mirror in big bold letters was a single sentence. 

_ MISS ME, KITTEN? _

* * *

Rhys makes LB shatter the mirror the very same day. 

He didn’t miss the concerned look the robot sent him at the odd request, he just chose to ignore it.

It's easier that way.

* * *

Footage of the bathroom hidden camera shows him writing the message with his metal arm, a big smirk on his face and left eye glowing a blinding yellow. 

Rhys erases the recording and destroys the camera.

It didn't happen if there is no proof. 

* * *

He avoids reflective surfaces ever since the incident with the bathroom mirror. 

No evidence, no proof. 

Rhys obsesses about it so much, his mind feels like a broken record. 

* * *

He considers, briefly, getting rid of the ECHOEye, and replacing it with a glass one.

His work would be considerably harder without the constant connection to the Atlas Network but he made do without it once, and he can do it again. 

Then Rhys remembered that he [ _Jack]_ could smile and play the part of the ex-Hyperion stooge flawlessly, remembers that he _has_ done it before, back on Helios… and [ _tries to forget]_ that no one [not even _Vaughn]_ _noticed_ the change. 

_ [Somewhere Jack is laughing, and Rhys's eye is burning a blinding gold.] _

Maybe he'll let it stay after all...

* * *

* * *

It only gets worse when Rhys meets Lilith, the leader of the Crimson Raiders. 

She takes one look at him… and instantly sees someone else. 

"I can see  _ him _ in your  _ face _ ." 

Lilith doesn't specify, she doesn't  _ have _ to. 

And that's probably what sickens him the most.

( _ Can't you  _ **_see_ ** _?) _

Rhys forgets how to breathe. 

( _You_ ** _are_** _me!_ _)_

He doesn't deal with the Crimson Raiders again. 

Or at least he tries not to. 

* * *

* * *

He looks at the large statue given to him by the Children of Helios, glittering gold in the harsh sunlight.

It stood there as another reminder, along with the ruins of Helios, of what he's  _ done _ , of who he's  _ beaten[ _ , of all the  _ people _ he's  _ killed _ to make it happen], and of what he has risen  _ above _ . 

To the employees that managed to escape the carnage Rhys brought upon Helios with his return, it was a symbol of freedom, of  _ victory _ over an oppressive lifestyle. 

To Sasha and Fiona it was a constant reminder that their greatest enemy is dead and buried. Gone forever. 

To Lilith it was little more than a block of gold with the face of a murderer, and Rhys's name crudely scribbled across it's chest. 

During the first few days as the Atlas CEO it was a constant reminder of what [ _ who _ ] he could have been [a  _ body _ of a  _ madman _ ], a  _ warning _ of what he could still  _ become _ if he lets his newfound power corrupt him. 

Now…

It was worse than facing a mirror.

Because it made it [,the feeling of dread, of  _ falling _ ] feel that much more  _ real _ .

'It's Jack but with Rhys's name.' Vaughn explained to any new recruit that wanted to learn the story behind it.

Rhys wondered how easily that statement could become: 

'It's called  _ Rhys _ but it's really  _ Jack _ .' 

_ [He ( _ **_He_ ** _?) wonders how long before it morphs into:] _

['It's  _ Jack.  _ He's  _ Rhys _ .']

* * *

* * *

He still lies to himself two months later though the line is different. 

This time he closes his eyes, takes a deep breath and thinks. 

' _ I'm still me _ .' 


End file.
